NEW YORK -- Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Assembly Housing Committee Chairman Vito Lopez were joined by members of the
Assembly Majority, David R. Jones the President of the Community Service Society of New York, affordable housing advocates and
rent-regulated tenants to release a groundbreaking new report documenting rent-stabilized housing’s critical role in protecting millions of
working New Yorkers and the urgent need to extend rent-stabilization laws while closing the loopholes that are costing New York thousands
of affordable apartments every year.

The report, The New Housing Emergency, revealed that more than 10,000
rent-regulated apartments are lost each year because of loopholes in the rent laws such as vacancy decontrol, individual apartment
improvement and major capital improvement rent increases. The current rent laws are set to expire on June 15th. Silver, Lopez and Jones
called for those laws to be extended and expanded.

"If we do not act quickly to extend our rent laws, millions of working New Yorkers could lose their homes," Speaker Silver said. "Merely
continuing the current laws is not enough. We must close the loopholes identified in this report that cost our neighborhoods thousands of
affordable homes each year and which threaten to turn New York into a city without a middle-class."

"I am pleased to join Speaker Silver and my Assembly colleagues to advocate for the expansion of the Rent Regulation Laws," said
Assemblyman Lopez, Chairman of the Assembly Housing Committee, who has dedicated his career to preserving and creating affordable
housing for New Yorkers. "As we face a dire housing crisis in New York City, it is imperative that we fight to protect the residents of New York
City, maintain our affordable housing stock and prevent against massive displacement throughout the City of New York."

"Our research shows that New Yorkers continue to experience multiple hardships, with many residents using a good majority of their income
for rent," said Jones, who authored the 'New Housing Emergency' report. "More than 340,000 rental properties affordable to low-income
people were lost between 2000 and 2007 in the five boroughs. This is why we must renew the rent regulation laws, repeal vacancy
destabilization, and curtail exorbitant rent increases on vacancy."

The report finds that:

There are roughly 1,021,000 rent regulated households in New York City, representing the largest source of housing for middle and
low income New Yorkers. The median income for rent regulated tenants in New York City is $38,000;

In 49 percent of rent-regulated households, the head of household is a first generation immigrant;

In 2009, landlords reported that 13,500 apartments were removed from rent protections through vacancy decontrol and other
loopholes in the rent laws, but because reporting is voluntary, the actual number is likely higher;

Those losses have made it harder and harder for families to find available rent-stabilized apartments. In Manhattan below Harlem, the proportion of recent movers finding a rent-regulated apartment fell from 52 percent in 2001 to 31 percent in 2007. In Upper Manhattan, it fell from 81 to 67 percent;

Affordable housing is being lost across the region. Since 2000, the New York metro area lost 29 percent of the apartments considered affordable to low-income families, and 12 percent of those considered affordable to middle-income families; and

Current law allows landlords to permanently remove vacant apartments from rent-stabilization by simply making improvements and repairs, which occur with little oversight and regulation.

In releasing the report, Silver and members of the Assembly Majority vowed to pass legislation that would extend rent regulations and add
new protections that would help reverse the significant losses of affordable housing spelled out in the report.